Introduction

Land degradation is essentially the result of human action. Irrigation in unsuitable areas may lead to rising water tables and salinisation, overgrazing and unsuitable cultivation practices promote erosion and excessive tree clearance leads to a variety of ills including dryland salting and dieback problems. While in some cases these outcomes are similar in kind to natural processes (eg erosion) the timescale is usually shortened dramatically. These natural processes have largely determined our existing environment, but they rarely constitute a perceived problem unless they have been accelerated or aggravated by human action.

This fundamental fact has not been adequately incorporated into policy discussion surrounding land degradation. The role of agricultural practices in promoting or arresting land degradation has certainly been recognised. However, this has usually occasioned calls for repentance rather than analysis of why farmers make the decisions they do. In policy analysis, more attention has been paid to treating the symptoms of degradation through ameliorative works, rather than dealing with its causes. Ameliorative works may sometimes be the best response to land degradation problems, but they are likely to be ineffectual, or even counterproductive, if they are introduced without taking account of the underlying behavioural causes of the problem.

In this paper, some of the factors which lead farmers to make decisions tending to promote or restrain land degradation will be discussed. This discussion will, in turn, be used as the basis for a brief discussion of the policy options open to governments. Emphasis will be on economic aspects of the farm management decision.